fDi American Cities of the Future 2013/14 press release

PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release

New York City claims the title as the top city in the Americas for inward investment attractiveness but the fast-rising São Paulo is proving a fierce competitor

Despite a 16% global decline in FDI in 2012, New York has remained the top destination for FDI into the Americas and was named fDi Magazine’s American City of the Future 2013/14. São Paulo followed closely in second and Toronto in third.

The Big Apple showed its mettle by winning the rankings despite both economic (Wall Street bail out) and natural (Hurricane Sandy) disasters, remaining one of the world’s top destinations for investors and attracting 1.08% of global FDI. Even in the face of Hurricane Sandy, New York managed to retain its title as the Best Major (see below for population categories) American City for Infrastructure, previously won in the 2011/12 rankings.

But a South American competitor is nipping closely at its heels. For the first time in fDi Magazine’s bi-annual rankings, the Brazilian city of São Paulo has not only entered the top 10 but it ranked second overall. São Paulo consolidates its position as a key player in the global FDI arena (it reached sixth place worldwide in 2012) and also manages to snatch the top position in economic potential from New York (which won the 2011/12 rankings), to claim the title of Best Major American City for Economic Potential. According to greenfield investment monitor fDi Markets - part of the same division of the Financial Times as fDi Magazine - FDI into the South American business metropolis has increased year on year since 2004.

Canadian cities Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver respectively ranked third, fourth and fifth overall, and performed particularly well in the attraction of knowledge-intensive FDI.

US cities made up the remainder of the top 10, with Houston, Atlanta, San Francisco, Chicago and Miami ranking sixth to 10th, respectively.

In a weakened global economy, US, Brazilian and Canadian cities continue to attract the lion’s share of FDI into the Americas region. However, cities in Mexico, Colombia and Chile are offering a more competitive deal than ever to entice potential investors, and many governments and investment agencies are implementing initiatives to improve infrastructure, business regulations and financial incentives.

Other highlights include:

With the exception of New York, Montreal-based companies invested in more FDI projects than other city in the Americas region

San Francisco and Houston experienced the largest growth in FDI projects behind São Paulo and New York

Relative to population size, Atlanta and Miami were in the top five for attracting FDI

São Paulo has also been named the Latin American City of the Future 2013/14, pushing the previous winner, Santiago (Chile), into second position, and leaving fellow Brazilian metropolis Rio de Janeiro ranking third

Five new entrants featured in this year’s Latin American top 10 cities: Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Panama City and Montevideo

Colombia’s strategy to rebrand the country and build a positive international image to potential investors appears to be paying off, and FDI into Bogotá has increased year on year since 2008

San Jose, California, the largest city within the world-renowned Silicon Valley, was named Best Large American City for Economic Potential

Sunnyvale, California, is named as the Best Small City for Economic Potential again this year. Also located within the Silicon Valley area, Sunnyvale’s attraction as a destination is enhanced by the presence of global companies such as Yahoo! and Advanced Micro Devices, which are headquartered in the city

Boston ranked as the Best Major American City for Human Resources 2013/14

The coastal sea port of Seattle topped the category for best infrastructure among large cities. Home to the ninth largest port in North America in terms of container handling, Seattle continues to be a major gateway for trade with Asia

An awards ceremony will be held at the IEDC annual conference, taking place in Philadelphia on October 6 – 9, 2013.

Population categories

For the 2013/14 ranking, fDi Magazine introduced new population category parameters. To categorise cities, fDi took into account both the population of the immediate city area and that of the metropolitan area.

Major (49 cities)The cities in this category had an immediate city population of more than 750,000 people plus a metropolitan area of more than 2 million, or a metropolitan area of more than 4 million.

Large (52 cities) This category included those cities with an immediate city population of more than 500,000 plus a metropolitan area of more than 1 million, or a metropolitan area of more than 2 million people.

Mid-sized (80 cities)The cities in this category had an immediate city population of more than 200,000 people plus a metropolitan area population of more than 750,000, or an immediate city population of more than 350,000 people.

Small (196 cities)Cities categorised as small had an immediate city population of between 100,000 and 350,000.

Micro (43 cities)Micro cities had an immediate city population of fewer than 100,000.

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For further information please contact Dino Ribeiro, on dino.ribeiro@ft.com or call +44(0)20 7873 3964 / +44 (0)7739 924084. The full results are available onhttp://www.fdiintelligence.com/Rankings – please register to download the full results for free.

Notes to editors

About the rankings

These rankings are part of fDi Magazine's 'Locations of the Future' series, which are

designed to identify the most promising destinations around the world for future inward

investment. Each world region is assessed over two years.

To create the shortlist of 'American Cities of the Future 2013/14', fDi's research team

collected data using the specialist online FDI tools fDi Benchmark and fDi Markets as well as

other sources. Data was collected for 422 cities under five categories: ‘Economic Potential’,

Corporate location benchmarking tool

fDi Benchmark is the only online tool to benchmark the competitiveness of countries and cities in over 50 sectors. Its comprehensive location data series covers the main cost and quality competitiveness indicators for over 300 locations around the world.